Yeah, $5 for an app sounds like a lot, but if you are a Twitter power user or looking to become one — this is the app to get. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: Tweetbot is the best mobile Twitter experience.

Unfortunately, Tweetbot 3 never got an iPad version. While the developers promise that Tweetbot 4 will come with iPad support, you probably don’t want to wait that long. Thankfully, Twitterrific reduces your wait for a great tablet Twitter app. And it’s freeiOS Twitter Client Twitterrific Goes FreeiOS Twitter Client Twitterrific Goes FreeYou know what's great? Getting things that used to cost money for free. Twitterrific sold for $2.99 on the App Store until now, and now is taking the freemium route.Read More, if you don’t mind a few adverts (though you can pay $2.99 to remove these).

Twitterrific looks perfectly at home on an iPad running iOS 7 or above, whether it’s the smaller Mini or the larger Air. Much like Tweetbot, Twitterrific looks good, works without a fuss, and offers features simply not found in the official app.

Twitterrific also has a “Today” mode for users who choose to upgrade, which I love and personally think makes it better than Tweetbot. The “Today” view shows activity on your timeline today, such as retweets and favorites of your tweets, new followers, and so on. It’s like the “Interactions” column of Twitter — something which only the official Twitter app has and no third-party app is allowed access to.

You can connect multiple Twitter accounts, pick a URL shortening service of your choice, and Buffer will do the rest. When you want to send a tweet right away, choose the “Share Now” option, otherwise use the default “Share/Buffer” button.

Buffer also provides analytics for each tweet, which you can check to figure out how many people replied to it, how many favorited it, and how many clicked on it.

The “Awesome Plan” pro version lets you schedule up to 200 tweets at a time, connect RSS feeds, and add two team members. The default free version is good enough for most users though, so you probably won’t need this unless you’re into social media marketing.

The search parameters include: keywords to include and exclude, users, location, positive or negative attitude, asking and not asking a question, including or excluding retweets, and tweets with links, media and news. You can then sort your results chronologically or by popularity.

You can also interact with the tweets in your results. Options include retweets, favorites, replies, or viewing/following the user.

Since it’s a widget that sits on your “Today” screen, you’re able to view tweets no matter which app you are in simply by swiping down on the screen to reveal Notification Center. The widget shows either the last five tweets from your timeline, or the last five mentions you received.

The really cool part is that you can actually interact with them directly from the Notification Center. You can retweet, favorite or dismiss the tweet — to reply to a tweet, tap on it and it’ll open in your favorite Twitter app.

However, NC and every other Twitter widget we tried does not let you compose and send a tweet directly from the Notification Center. There isn’t a single third-party widget that does this well. If you find one or build one, we’d love to hear about it in the comments and update this article!

Other Contenders

There were plenty of other great Twitter tools for iPhone which didn’t make the cut, for some reason or the other. I can’t list them all here, but I’ll shortlist those that came closest.

A robust Twitter client, it is packed with features and free but ad-supported. Unfortunately, you can only mute users, not keywords or hashtags. And the design is underwhelming. Still, no harm in using this one.

Quick Compose ($0.99)

This iOS 8 widget came close because it apparently lets you compose tweets directly from the Notification Center. However, I just couldn’t get my Twitter account connected to it. If any reader has better luck, let us know in the comments!

Make Twitter less overwhelming with Eddy, which displays one tweet at a time in a minimalist interface. It’s a nice way of repurposing your old iPad into a Twitter display device. Check out our full review of Eddy for more details.

Twitter vs. The Rest

Personally, I often end up going back to my Twitter app for the Interactions feed, which is increasingly more important now that several of my Twitter friends started using “Favorite” as an acknowledgement of having read a tweet.

What about you? Do you use the original Twitter app instead of any third-party app? Why?

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Anonymous

September 15, 2015 at 6:23 pm

I love tweetbot but there's 3 big things it doesn't do: U can't send pictures in DM, u can't view group DM messages, and quote tweets don't appear in your mentions, u have to either see it in ur timeline to respond to it, or have it show up in your notifications tab.

Cool, I'll ask my Android editor if he wants a similar guide and if he says yes, you should see one soon :)

Anonymous

September 8, 2015 at 12:38 pm

Thank you !!! :)

Anonymous

September 7, 2015 at 9:30 pm

You have to use the official Twitter app to send pictures in DMs. I asked tapbots why and they said Twitter hasn't released the api. Tweetbot notifies you of who favorites you and who follows you but if you don't see the notification you won't know, unlike the official Twitter app that shows follows and favorites where it shows your mentions. I use both apps.

The one thing that you DO need the official app for - and which stops me from deleting it - is if you have two-step authentication set up. When you log into your account via the web, a request to access your account is sent to the official Twitter app, which you must click on to get in.

Well technically Twitter offers 2FA via SMS message, but in my experience, this service is very spotty. There have been many times when I have been locked out of my Twitter account because the text hasn't arrived. For me, the only reliable form of 2FA for Twitter is having verification sent to the official app.

I really don't care having the official app installed to be honest. It's not something which makes me curse under my breath!! ;-)